Monitoring Cancer and Drug Delivery with Nanoparticles

A new type of nanoparticle has been developed that can be used to perform fluorescent imaging and MRI simultaneously to help track specific molecules and targeted drug delivery, and monitor the environment around a tumor.

The researchers used the nanoparticles in mice to track the movement and concentration of vitamin C by comparing the fluorescence and MRI contrast of the nanoparticles at different locations. The nanoparticles were assembled from separate polymer chains carrying either a nitroxide organic MRI contrast agent, or the fluorescent molecule Cy5.5. The chains were combined in a ratio of 99% nitroxides and 1% Cy5.5. Normally, the lifetime of the nitroxide is too short to obtain useful MRI images but was extended by the researchers by attaching the nitroxide to branched bottlebrush polymers architectures. Using this technique the researchers created nanoparticles carrying three different drugs and also the fluorescent agent.

According to Jeremiah A. Johnson, assistant professor of Chemistry at MIT and senior author of the study, "Someday you might be able to inject this into a patient and obtain real-time biochemical information about disease sites and also healthy tissues." The research was carried out at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT; Cambridge, MA, USA) by a team of researchers and was published in the November 18, 2014, issue of Nature Communications.

Related Links:
MIT